These are worrying times for Surrey - and some supporters of other counties are deriving a little vicarious pleasure from it all.

Scott Borthwick more than doubled his tally of Championship wickets for the season as spin gradually broke Sussex's resistance at Arundel

as Gordon Muchall, Paul Coughlin and John Hastings filled their boots on the third day of this match at Arundel, many observers, whether within or without the sylvan bowl, still wondered why Paul Collingwood did not declare.

The sun-hatted scrutineers were out in numbers during the tea interval on the second day of this match at Arundel. With 12 wickets having fallen in less than a half a day's cricket, it was only proper that pitch inspectors, although so far only the amateu

The Arundel Castle ground is a tree-ringed circus of sophisticated glories, so perhaps it is only fitting that a cricketer nicknamed "the Viscount" should prosper here.

One minute Matthew Fisher is bowling in front of a capacity crowd at Headingley, the next he is back learning his trade - at the place where Joe Root and Adil Rashid did theirs

Just over 72 hours previously Jos Buttler had performed valiantly in England's losing cause against New Zealand. On Friday evening he smote a stunning 71 not out off just 35 balls to take Lancashire to a win

Lancashire's spinners bowled 36.1 overs on the fourth morning, during which seven wickets fell at a cost of 43 runs to give them an innings victory

With seven balls to be bowled on the sunlit, if chilly, third evening of this game, Derbyshire's Ben Slater and Chesney Hughes had every reason to be happy with their work

Karl Brown and Steven Croft, two products of the Lancashire academy, sealed the Championship in 2011 but it is already clear that if the Division Two title is to be won this year, the achievement will not be solely, or even largely, the work of homegrown

Some of the best cricketers of their time have played at Trafalgar Road. Viv Richards, Clive Lloyd and Wasim Akram are merely three of them. Now Hashim Amla has joined an august company.

Durham's inexpensively assembled side defended 155 rather comfortably in the end, as Lancashire lost five wickets for four runs in eight balls

Keith Barker and Rikki Clarke combined to mop up Durham and complete a comfortable eight-wicket win

Title contenders in any team sport are often characterised as much by an aversion to defeat as a thirst for victory

Keith Barker is generally happy to see his name on Warwickshire's team-sheet for games against Durham

Jonathan Trott began life in international retirement with an assured 42 but his innings was a mere footnote to a rollicking opening day's play

Barely 16 months ago, Michael Carberry was an England cricketer. And watching him bat against Yorkshire on the second afternoon of this game, it was not difficult to believe

If there is anything disgruntled Yorkshiremen do not appreciate, it is empathy from a vaguely Lancastrian source. Nevertheless, after an inactive time in the Caribbean, they might have appreciated an old lyric from the cross-Pennines songstress Gracie Fie

In the election-debate episode of The West Wing President Jed Bartlet and his staff talk about "the square foot of real estate" which lies inside a person's head. Were he to watch the TV show, Lancashire seamer Kyle Jarvis might nod his head in qui

Joe Denly is back with Kent, his home county, and the Old Trafford faithful enduring his dogged innings surely recognised he aims to thank them for their faith in him